Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Through most of the 2000's I was wannabe roadie wearing kit like "the cyclist who must not be named" and lusting after carbon fiber. Then in 2008-2009 I stumbled on to Rivendell and later Velo Orange and I started to realize that maybe I should give steel a shot, especially since I am never going to be a 130 lbs. Colombian climber or any kind of racer for that matter. For those that are built for them I am sure Carbon fiber is great but as a "Super" Clydesdale, when I look at Carbon bikes these days I swear I can hear them whimper " no way big dude you'd break me like a stick".

So anyway it's 2009 I am in a loving Steel phase (that is still going strong in 2013 btw) and a Rivendell would have been awesome but they were out of my price range at the time. So I looked around at Surly's and a few other brands and then stumbled across a fairly new company out of Minneapolis called Handsome Cycles. The bike frame business was a recent offshoot of their long time bike shop "The Alt" bike and board.

I liked the look of the frame and price was right so I ordered away once I had the $$$ and the day it arrived was pretty cool-kind of like Christmas morning for an 8 year-old.

While I was waiting on the frame I had also assembled some nice bits for the cockpit

Crank, BB and pedals

And the drive train- only Dura-Ace I have ever owned; bar end shifters.

After I started putting it together I realized I might need a few more spacers

But other than that it felt like the bike was coming together.

There were a lot of first for this bike and one of them was having to apply the decals myself. I was a little anxious about this but taking my time and being patient it ended up working out and I liked the whimsy of some of the decals too.

I was lucky to have a cyclist neighbor who was willing to loan me his Park work-stand to finish the assembly job, having an icy Portland Brewing IPA didn't hurt on a warm July afternoon either.

One thing I have enjoyed about this frame over the last, almost, 5 years is that it is so versatile. The basic stuff; Brooks saddle, Nitto Rando bars, bar end shifters and Deore RD, have stayed constant but the crank has gone from an IRD compact, to a Sugino triple, to the current 36t single crank for a 1x9 set up with an 11-36t 9 speed cassette. It has also evolved from 700x32c tires to 700x38c with Fenders to the current 700x47c Continentials tires that have pushed aside the fenders 'cause they are so damn big- as seen here in my first post

Got the bike done back in 2009 in time for a little celebratory birthday ride to the neighborhoods French bakery.

While camping with the family in the north cascades that summer I got some good rides in -compact double configuration.

By 2010 I had added VO fluted fenders, a rear rack and switched to the Sugino XD-2 triple crank. I also got rid of the canti brakes from the original build, which I had a tough time adjusting, and switched to V-brakes which I find much easier to work with.

And as it sits today with a 1x9 set up; the 11-36t 9 speed cassette and 36t chain ring gives me the low end to get up hills in West Seattle and the 700x47mm conti's are just plain fun. It commutes, its a good shopping rig, its taken me bike camping (S24O) and basically any time I need a bike to hop on and go this is the one I choose.